


Love Will See Us Through

by Sir_Bedevere



Series: You're Gonna Love Tomorrow [3]
Category: Follies - Sondheim/Goldman
Genre: F/M, Prequel, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22944262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Bedevere/pseuds/Sir_Bedevere
Summary: Borrow the car. Borrow some money. Buddy had always been too generous. That’s what Dad said. Too soft. Well, turned out the old man was right about that. Buddy should have always seen it coming that Ben would think he could borrow his girl too.Sometime between college and that night in 1971, Buddy Plummer made up his mind.
Relationships: Buddy Plummer/Sally Durant
Series: You're Gonna Love Tomorrow [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1313285
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	Love Will See Us Through

Borrow the car. Borrow some money. Buddy had always been too generous. That’s what Dad said. Too soft. Well, turned out the old man was right about that. Buddy should have always seen it coming that Ben would think he could borrow his girl too.

**

Ben thought Buddy was mad for choosing the army, said the navy was a better choice. But Buddy didn’t tell him that he would rather go to Europe and march across that godforesaken continent than even have a chance he’d end up on the same boat as Ben.

The war was going to be for the best. If Buddy never saw Ben again it would be too damn soon. But Sally - Sally loved Phyllis. Even on days when he didn’t think she loved him, he knew that. So maybe some time apart would do them all some good, cool everyone down, and by the end of the war everything would be alright. 

**

Sally kissed him, sloppy and _too_ much when they all came to wave him off. 

**

England was the greenest place a city boy from Brooklyn could have ever seen, and Buddy loved it. Loved the fresh air and the smell of cow shit. Loved the farm he was billeted on. Loved the farmer and his wife and their seven kids. 

The oldest one, Eve, was eighteen and beautiful. All peaches and cream like Sally was that first day he met her. Eve was so like her, except she looked at him like he was worth something. 

So on the last day before training was complete and they all moved out, he kissed Eve in the barn. She put his hand on her chest and held it there. 

“Last chance,” she said. 

“I got a girl back home.”

“ I know.”

**

Sally went back to the farm in Iowa. There was nothing for her in New York, not without the Follies or Buddy or Phyllis. _Not without Ben._ But she still wrote Buddy, long letters about what she was doing, and she sent him lumpy socks that didn’t sit right and made his feet bleed in his boots. And like a sucker, he kissed every letter and he wore every pair of socks till they fell apart. 

**

“Get down, Sergeant Plummer!”

The grenade came out of nowhere, fell right at Buddy’s feet, and he didn’t even stop to think about his own sorry life. He dropped on it, curled up, waited in an empty second for the world to go red. 

But it didn’t. 

The grenade was a dud, and the captain came back for him, pulled Buddy to his feet. He was shaking so much the captain had to drag him away. Once they were safe, his pals crowded round, slapped his back.

Buddy had tried to protect them, every last one, with the only things he had. God knew his soul wasn’t worth much, but his body. His life. And he hadn’t thought twice about it. Just closed his eyes and pictured Sally. 

He’d always been too generous. 

Captain Tennant gave him a commendation. 

Buddy traded the ribbon for smokes. 

**

_Dear Sally,_

_Just a little note. Can’t say much. There’s a market here for old parachutes. Captain says they make a good wedding dress. I’ll bring you one home. I promise._

_All my love,  
B _

**

The first time he killed a man, Buddy could see the sweat on the other guy’s brow. Close enough that later on he realised the spots on the cuffs of his uniform were blood, and he knew that it wasn’t his. 

**

There was another girl on another farm, in another barn. This one was half starved and she wanted him for his tinned beef and his candy bars.

Buddy didn’t hesitate that time, when she put his hands on her.  


He never did find out her name. 

**

Captain Tennant was a law man too. From some place out west, near to the desert. Tanned and blond, square like a football player, with an eyepatch that made him look like a goddamn pirate. He’d refused to go home, so he was still there. He was also too old to be a captain, but he’d refused promotion to major when he got injured. Said he liked his boots on the ground. 

“Smoke?” Captain asked Buddy, holding out his tin. Sentry at night wasn’t fun, but at least it was quiet. 

“Sir, you should be sleeping.”

Tennant shrugged, lit Buddy’s cigarette.

“I’m a bit of a dreamer, Plummer. And they aren’t always welcome.”

“I dream,” Buddy said. “I don’t think I used to, before I came here. Or I don’t remember, anyway.”

“What do you dream about?” Tennant eyed the patch of ground Buddy had settled on, then folded to his knees to sit beside him. Anyone else asked that question, Buddy would have told them to mind their own business.

“I had a friend. Best friend. Him and my girl - I caught them at it. You know.”

“Uh huh.”

“And I thought, you know, I’ll be happy if the bastard never came home from this. But I’ve been dreaming of him lately, drowning in a goddamn iron coffin so far from home. And the kicker is, I wake up and it makes me sad. The idea of that.”

Buddy’s hands were shaking, so he put them on his knees. Now he’d said it out loud, it sounded dumb.

“Time heals, they say.” Captain Tennant stretched his arms over his head. “None of us are gettin’ out of this alive. At least not in the way we used to be living.”

Buddy gazed off into the trees and found his eyes were blurry, like a film was over them. There were still dark spots of blood he couldn’t get out of the cuff of his jacket. 

“I wanted him dead. Now I just - I dunno.”

The captain put a hand on his shoulder. Squeezed it tight enough to hurt. 

**

_I can’t wait to marry you, Buddy. Come home to me._

**

The last thing he did in the war was liberate a camp, and boy was he glad, because Buddy wasn’t sure how he’d ever be able to look another Nazi in the eye and accept a surrender without just shooting the bastard in the face. 

On his way home, Buddy decided he didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Not now he’d seen the worst things people could do.

**

Sally was waiting for him, and her face made all the favours he had to pull for the parachute worth it. 

“How’s Phyllis?” he asked, on the way to the farm. He was going to meet her father, and do it all properly. 

“Fine, I guess,” Sally said, threading under his arm. Hand on his leg.

“How’s Ben?” he choked around the lump in his throat.

“Alive.”

“Good.”

“Momma is so excited to meet you, Buddy. My brave soldier. I swear I haven’t stopped talking about you. They must all be tired of me by now.”

She held his hand tight, and he fell asleep on her shoulder. The best damn sleep he’d had in three years. 

There was only ever one farm girl for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Starts a series in March 2019
> 
> Also me: Abandons it then suddenly starts it again a year later


End file.
